Kyle Busch got death threats after 2008 crash of Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Richmond

Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans were extremely, extremely, extremely unhappy with Kyle Busch after the two crashed 10 years ago at Richmond.

If you’re a longtime NASCAR fan you undoubtedly remember Busch and Earnhardt racing for the lead late in the race at Richmond in 2008. The two drivers were battling for the win after Denny Hamlin’s dominating win dissolved because of a flat tire.

Junior was racing for his first win since 2006. This is what happened with three laps to go.

Busch said on Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast that he got death threats “periodically” after the race throughout the rest of the season. He recalled leaving the track with fans throwing things at him in a golf cart and then staying in a building near the track’s helipad until the helicopter arrived because of the proximity of fans to the area.

“Past that for like the rest of the year, there were crazy death threats and stuff like that.” Busch said. ” There were death threats to the house. There was a guy that called — I don’t remember if he called NASCAR or the racetrack but it was Kentucky Speedway, I was at Kentucky for the Xfinity Series race and I won. Back then when we flew in to run the standalone Xfinity Series races — I won that night and as soon as I did the victory lane stuff they corraled me and got me and took me into a cop car. And took me out of the racetrack in a cop car.

“And I’m like what are we doing boys, what’s going on? And they’re like ‘we’ve had a tip-off that there’s a shooter on the loose.’ Like a guy’s coming to the racetrack with a shotgun.”

Busch’s former spotter Jeff Dickerson told Jeff Gluck in an oral history of the incident that the team would escort Busch out of tracks a different way after hearing of threats during following races.

“That whole year, Kyle would get death threats,” Dickerson said. “Seriously. We’d leave a track and Kyle would say, “Why are we going this way?” But we would shield him. We wouldn’t tell him, “Well, the local police tipped off NASCAR halfway through a race that you received a death threat.” That really happened. So when they put a microphone in Dale Jr.’s face and he said how Kyle was going to need some security, I remember thinking how terribly irresponsible that was, because Kyle was already dealing with death threats. And the whole place was hooting and hollering.”

The two drivers met for the podcast after doing the interviews for the oral history. Busch and Junior said the podcast was the first time they had sat down and discussed the crash, which came in Earnhardt Jr.’s first year with Hendrick Motorsports and Busch’s first year with Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch and Junior are now friends, but their animosity towards each other back then is no secret.

Busch was the driver who left Hendrick to make way for Earnhardt Jr. The circumstances of Busch’s departure are discussed in written remembrance of the crash, which we can’t recommend highly enough. After all, it includes this other gem from Dickerson recalling his emotions at the time of the crash.

“I wasn’t worried about [Earnhardt Jr. spotter] T.J. Majors, I was worried about every flag-wavin’, Bud-drinkin’ fan who just got woken up from their wet dream,” Dickerson said. “The roar of the crowd in that moment when that went down was unreal. There was no way you were going to be able to tell 50 million people he didn’t mean to wreck him. I could feel every spotter looking at me. I remember (spotter) Brett Griffin coming over and saying, “How are you guys gonna get out of this one?”

The Cup Series races at Richmond on Saturday as Busch goes for his third-straight win of 2018. Busch almost won at Richmond in 2016 but was knocked out of the way by teammate Carl Edwards for the win in the final turn of the race.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter

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